Most known sewing machines comprise in their lower base or arm a loop catch machanism located beneath a removable cover which often comprises a shiftable plate. The cover is normally engaged in a housing of a base plate forming a part of the machine working surface but must be removed or shifted away from the housing when it becomes necessary to gain access to the loop catch mechanism such as when servicing or replacing the bobbin contained therein. Two examples of prior cover devices for sewing machine loop catch mechanisms will be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,812 issued 9/29/70 to Rouha and French Pat. No. 738,724 issued 12/29/32 to Gonyk. Both of these devices employ a cover supported upon a spring-urged pivot pin but require a decided effort by the user's fingers to manipulate the cover.
The present invention has as its object facilitating the opening and closing operation of this cover for the user.
For this purpose, the sewing machine according to the invention is characterized in that the cover is connected to a lower arm base plate by a pin device comprising a swivel pin approximately perpendicular to the cover plate and which passes near a portion of the periphery of the cover, thereby allowing a sliding and arcuate displacement of the cover about the swivel pin. An elastic return element pulls the cover toward the inside of the base plate housing, while a manual control element allows movement of the cover against the action of the return element to remove the cover from its housing.
The accompanying drawing shows diagrammatically and by way of example an embodiment and a variant of the machine that is the object of the invention.